Nxasana letter ‘refutes allegations’

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. Photo: Thobile Mathonsi

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. Photo: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Jun 2, 2014

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Durban - In his letter to former justice minister Jeff Radebe on May 22, national prosecutions boss, Mxolisi Nxasana, outlined the events of the meeting where he was asked to resign and countered the allegations against him.

The Daily News is in possession of a copy of the letter, written a day after Nxasana met Radebe and Justice and Constitutional Development director-general Nonkululeko Sindane.

According to the letter Radebe had told Nxasana that the State Security Agency had investigated him and decided not to issue him a Top Security Clearance Certificate on the basis that:

* He did not disclose that in 1985 he was charged with murder;

* In August 2013 he had been arrested for inconsiderate driving and resisting arrest;

* In 1998 he was fined by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society for failing to lodge/prosecute a client’s claim timeously; and

* That he stopped Prince Mokotedi, the executive manager of the Integrity Unit at the NPA, from investigating him and then disbanded the unit.

In response, Nxasana said that while he did not disclose the case of murder to the NPA’s accounting officer, advocate Karen van Rensburg, or the director of domestic intelligence, Simon Ntombela, it was his belief that he did not “have a duty in law” to disclose the case in which he was tried and acquitted by a court of law.

“It is the same with the case of inconsiderate driving and resisting arrest. I was wrongly arrested and the senior public prosecutor and the chief prosecutor declined to even place it on the court roll. On the other hand I opened a case against the police who arrested me with the help of a police officer from Ipid (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) Durban when the charge commander was reluctant to help me. As far as I know the case against the police is still active,” he wrote.

Nxasana said he did admit in his vetting documents that he had been fined R2 000 by the KZN law society.

He called the allegations by Mokotedi “devoid of truth”, adding that the NPA executive and Integrity Management Unit (IMU) staff could attest to it.

“I did point out that I know the people who are behind all this smear campaign who go about bragging and boasting that they will do everything in their power to bring me down. I also pointed out that these people make sure that they drop your name and I am told that they have direct access to you and they communicate with you behind my back,” Nxasana wrote.

“I know they have been peddling lies about me which I mentioned to you last night.”

Nxasana told Radebe that he would rather have Zuma establish a commission of inquiry than for him to resign.

“If that is the procedure then it means it would have to be followed as I believe that I am a fit and proper person to hold this position,” he wrote.

“I made it very clear, which I reiterate now, that I am not going to resign because of these false allegations against me.”

Daily News

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